Pope's recent health crisis
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 Pope John Paul's health takes a turn for the worse.
 CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the pope's decline.
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(CNN) -- Pope John Paul II, whose health has been increasingly fragile in recent years, has suffered a series of medical setbacks in the last two months. Some developments:
February 1: The pope is taken to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital with what the Vatican describes as a respiratory infection. He leaves the hospital nine days later after missing Ash Wednesday commemorations for the first time in his papacy.
February 24: Suffering from an acute bout of flu, the pope is admitted to the hospital and given a tracheotomy, an opening into the windpipe, to help him breathe. Doctors advise the pope not to speak right away.
March 1: The pope speaks for the first time since his surgery, talking to a top Vatican aide in Italian and German in his hospital room, according to The Associated Press. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger says the pope is "fully alert mentally and also able to say the essential things with his voice," the AP reports.
March 13: After delivering his first public remarks since throat surgery, a brief blessing from his hospital window, the pope returns to the Vatican.
March 20: The pope appears briefly at his window during Palm Sunday observances but does not speak. He reportedly watches Holy Thursday and Good Friday observances on television.
March 27: After trying and failing to speak his annual Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) Easter blessing, the ailing pope gives the sign of the cross with his hands. It is the first time in his papacy that he has not presided over the Easter Mass.
March 30: The Vatican announces the pope has been given a nasal-gastric feeding tube to aid in his recovery. Earlier in the day, crowds cheered as he gave a silent blessing from his window.
March 31: A spokesman for the Vatican says that the pope has a high fever from a urinary tract infection. Later, the pope is given the Anointing of the Sick, a ritual commonly known as last rites but not restricted to those who are dying.
April 1: In a written statement, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls says that the pope has suffered cardiovascular collapse and septic shock. Navarro-Valls later describes the pontiff as "lucid" and "serene."
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
